Research Update: SK Hynix Outlook Revised To Stable On Worsening Operating and Financial Performance; 'BBB-' Rating Affirmed

With demand slowdown amid a weakening macro economy and escalating trade tensions, we expect SK Hynix's operations in 2019 to weaken materially beyond our previous assumption. Despite our expectation of lower capital spending, we anticipate the Korea-based semiconductor memory manufacturer's debt to increase substantially over the next 12-24 months. On June 27, 2019, S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on SK Hynix to stable from positive and affirmed its 'BBB-' long-term issuer credit rating on the company. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that SK Hynix will maintain steady financial metrics of 0.6x–1.0x debt to EBTIDA over the next two years despite its deteriorating operating profitability, mainly due to its firm position as the second-largest global dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)

...- With demand slowdown amid a weakening macro economy and escalating trade tensions, we expect SK Hynix's operations in 2019 to weaken materially beyond our previous assumption. - Despite our expectation of lower capital spending, we anticipate the Korea-based semiconductor memory manufacturer's debt to increase substantially over the next 12-24 months. - On June 27, 2019, S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on SK Hynix to stable from positive and affirmed its '###-' long-term issuer credit rating on the company. - The stable outlook reflects our expectation that SK Hynix will maintain steady financial metrics of 0.6x¡1.0x debt to EBTIDA over the next two years despite its deteriorating operating profitability, mainly due to its firm position as the second-largest global dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) manufacturer....

Research Update